Author: Jess

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Virginia

Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia

Want to see something gorgeous?? I thought so.

The Blue Ridge Parkway extends from Shenandoah Valley and Skyline Drive all the way to the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.  While my parents were visiting from Utah, we took an evening and drove a section of it on our way to Monticello. It was cold, foggy, and raining and absolutely peaceful and serene. We didn’t catch the height of the Fall Leaf Season (we were a few weeks too early) but the rolling vistas of tree covered hills were still quite amazing. We drove from Lexington up into the Blue Ridge Mountains, along the parkway, and exited through the north end.

Map of the Blue Ridge Parkway

This small section took us about 2 hours (starting in Lexington and ending at the freeway to the north). It was the perfect distance for our littles. Cara actually fell asleep as we started around 3pm and she hadn’t had a nap that day. Andrew rode with Grandma and Grandpa, and we had Rachel with us. Listening to music, talking, and occasionally getting out to take photos made the time fly.

With small kids I definitely don’t recommend trying to drive the entire 469 miles in one stretch. Luckily for you there are restaurants, hotels, lodges, and even places to camp along the ridge. We definitely plan to drive the entire route at some point in our wanderings with the Airstream, so stay tuned for that. 😉

See the full photo gallery here.

Bonus: I recently found out there is a Jr. Ranger Program for the Blue Ridge Parkway. We will definitely be doing this in the future.

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Virginia Washington DC

Mt. Vernon Trail – A Bike Date

We are used to a weekly Thursday night date. It doesn’t matter what we end up doing, we could run errands, see a movie, go out to dinner, play a game of laser tag, anything. We just always went out on Thursday nights and tried not to let anything get in the way. I looked forward to it every week, because we got to reconnect and just talk without being interrupted by little ones. Since we left Utah, however, date nights have been far and in between. Babysitters are more expensive, we are busy, its an unfamiliar place, yadda, yadda. Truth is, I think we just got lazy.

We decided one week that it was definitely time for a date. A BIG one. Thankfully, we had met some friends in Virginia that live on our street and we LOVE to swap watching each other’s kids. Our children play great together, we both homeschool (so all the kids are home during the day), and we think a lot alike. Anyway, it was her turn to babysit, so we decided to cash in all our favors and take an afternoon to ride most of the Mt. Vernon Trail. It is one of the more popular paved pathways in the Washington DC area and for good reason. It was beautiful!

We started about 2 miles south of Mt. Vernon (who knows why – don’t do it. Just park at Mt. Vernon and ride from there), rode up to Gravelly Point, watched a few airplanes land, and rode back. We stopped in Old Town Alexandria for an AMAZING Thai lunch which then threw us behind schedule so we didn’t have time to go all the way to the Arlington National Cemetery. Oh well. The food was worth it. We clocked 35 miles, which is pretty good for not having really ridden my bike since our century last spring.

We definitely recommend this trail. There are lots of ways to ride it – or ride pieces of it. The Mt. Vernon website even suggests renting bikes in Alexandria, riding to Mt. Vernon and then taking a boat back. Sounds like fun!

Mt. Vernon Trail Bike Date

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Most Popular Posts National Parks Washington DC

Protest Rally at the National Mall during the Government Shutdown of 2013

We stumbled into a protest rally. The weather had finally stopped raining and church wasn’t until 1pm, so my visiting family and I decided to take a quick trip up to Washington DC to tour the monuments Sunday morning. Sam and I had visited the National Mall earlier in the week to see how closed things really were during the government shutdown (see that post here) and we figured my parents would be able to see something. Turns out we got more than we bargained for.

The visit started like our previous one. We walked past the pathetic attempt at a barricade and up to the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial stairs where the real barricade was located. Turning around I looked beyond the Reflecting Pool to a giant crowd of people, flashing policeman lights, and camera flashes in and around the World War II Memorial. A protest rally? Sweet!! “C’mon guys! Let’s go take photos!!” I urged my family. No takers. Rumor was that Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee, and former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin were down there and involved and I was itching to go watch the craziness.

We do the responsible thing and head over to the Korean Memorial instead. 10 or 15 minutes later as we are leaving the memorial and deciding where to go next, we notice that people are streaming up the Lincoln Memorial stairs. “What?” I quickly text Sam at home and ask if the government just opened? Isn’t it Sunday? I thought they didn’t even meet on Sunday? What’s going on? Naturally, we head over to investigate and get up in the memorial while we still can.

The protest rally had come to us.  Hundreds of war veterans, some dressed in uniform, some wearing t-shirts, some carrying flags, had removed the barricades, tossed them onto the lawn below, and were encouraging the tourists to “Come up! It’s open!”.  Thousands of people thronged the Lincoln Memorial. Their enthusiasm was contagious. Everyone was shaking hands, thanking the veterans and taking photos. Then came the police.

“Boooo!” we all shouted. “Go away!” Poor guys. How would YOU like to be in charge of reinstating the unwanted fences and clearing all those people out? No thank you. As law enforcement attempted to move the barricade pieces back in place, the war veterans and various onlookers formed a human wall and got in their way. Shouts of “Tear down the wall!” rang out over the plaza followed by cheers as veterans wrestled the barricades from the hands of the police and once again deposited them on the lawn.

As the human wall reformed,  a lone voice began singing the National Anthem and was soon joined by the entire crowd.

“O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!”

God Bless America.


 

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Homeschool Thoughts on Life

Back to School?

Homeschool.

Something I never thought I would do. Or want to do. Or even consider doing.

Who does that?

We do.

I think we’ve finally settled into a routine. The first couple of week, however, were pretty rough. Not going to lie. We struggled with expectations (Rachel) and sitting still (Andrew) and the ultimate distraction (Cara). I started to question my sanity on this whole venture, but then I remembered when Rachel would come home from 1st grade every day for at least a month and cry her little eyes out. “It’s SO hard.” “My teacher is mean.” “I’m SO tired.”  Yeah…. I think we are doing slightly better than that.

I also waged a war with my perfectionist side. I wanted everything to be perfectly organized, ready to go, every subject needed to be planned in advanced. I needed to have a 2 week schedule mapped out and know exactly which worksheets they needed to do, which crafts, and when we were going on field trips. The entire week before we “started” school, my kids BEGGED for us to begin. “PLEEEEEASE can we start school mom? PLEEEEEASE???” I thought they were nuts. It didn’t help that all their friends in Utah started the week before and all these cute photos of kids standing on their front porches kept popping up on my Facebook feed. I wasn’t ready, so I kept putting them off. I was still waiting for xxx to come in the mail, or I hadn’t thought about zzzz subject and didn’t have a “plan” yet. I finally ran out of excuses and we started on August 26th. After the Utah crowd, but before the crowd out here in Virginia. And you know what? The universe didn’t explode. See how happy they look??

We have our ups and downs, but for the most part I think we might actually survive this.

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National Parks Washington DC

The National Mall during the Government Shutdown

How closed is it? Really?

With family scheduled to come into town the following day, we decided to take a quick trip up to the National Mall today to see how closed it really was. We had seen photos on the news of barricades, police officers, even canine patrols designed to keep the general population out of the memorials and monuments while the United States government is closed. Before dragging family up there we wanted to make sure you really couldn’t see anything (and therefore not waste our time) and maybe I’d even get some great photos in there while I was at it. Okay, the photos were really the driving the factor. I really wanted photos of all the closed signs, because years down the road I’d have photographic evidence that we were there when it happened. This is epic you guys.

Here’s what we found in front of the Lincoln Memorial:

Guards. Yes, there were guards & policemen. Mostly I think they looked bored. This guy maybe looked a little annoyed too.

National Mall during government shutdown

Closed Signs & Caution Tape. Most of the tape has been torn down by previous visitors, but the signs are still intact.

 

We also took the kids down to see the Washington Monument (which we hadn’t done yet). I was actually pretty impressed with these policemen as we chatted for a bit. Turns out, they might not be able to get gas for their cars. Everything is done in the fleet system and they were unsure if the gas pumps were being refueled or not. They also mentioned that they were glad visitors were able to see the monuments despite the closure. As long as you didn’t move a barricade (just find a gap) you could go in. If any officer or law enforcement agent approached just mention you are exercising your first amendment rights and protesting the government shutdown. All they can do is politely ask you to leave. Sweet.

National mall closure during government shutdown

We also visited the Korean & Vietnam Memorials with success, but that’s a post for another day. Short answer? We are good to go.